HOW IT ALL BEGAN…

Our coalition of Black and Brown women farmers and organizers evolved out of a mixed race and mixed gender grassroots movement, Healthy Food Green Spaces, that recognized a need for political intervention back in 2014.

Together, we have worked to regain community control of land and food, share resources and prioritize community healing, grow food, protect and commune with the land, and build up BlPOC and women leadership. This movement began and evolved organically out of a need and desire for support, friendship and comradery, and especially, for radical change.

Over the past nine years, Soil Generation has shifted the public and political narrative around urban agriculture from being a hobby to a legitimate form of food, land, and environmental justice as well as cultural preservation and resilience. We advocated and facilitated the diversification of candidates and employees in Philadelphia urban agriculture positions, as well as participants in decision making tables like the Food Policy Advisory Council. We also launched our Threatened Gardens campaign, which has since been championed by progressive City Council members, published the first volume of our agroecology manual, Agroecology FROM the People, and co-authored Philadelphia’s first urban agriculture plan, Growing From the Root, with Interface Studios for the City of Philadelphia’s Department of Parks and Recreation.

Today, SG has evolved into an all Black and Brown women collective. In addition to our political work, we’ve begun to explore what centering healing for Black and Brown growers of color can look like in practice with our program As Within, Soul Without, which was launched at our first ever large-scale healing gathering: Soul ReGeneration in 2022. We’ve also deepened our praxis of shared leadership and collectivism.